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Trapinch Line/RSE
Trapinch is available on Route 111 and, in Emerald, also in the Mirage Tower that appears on the same route. Isn't it a cute little- holy crap 100 base Attack. Trapinch is very specific. It's absurdly slow with incredibly high Attack for a first stage, upon evolving it loses some of its highest stat to catch up in the Speed department and get the Dragon secondary type out of nowhere, and after evolving the second time it goes back to the Attack it had at the very beginning. Sad thing is that the first stage can't use its power, both because of low survivability and horrible speed, as well as not enough moves. If you evolve it all the way though, it'll become a decent mixed attacker, but not out of choice - it needs the improvement in Special Attack it got as Flygon to effectively use its second STAB and majority of its movepool. It's no secret that this line really needed the physical/special split that happened one generation later. Its Ground attacks are weaker than Golem's or Swampert's, it's less bulky than Sandslash or Claydol, it's less of a mixed attacker than Camerupt. It's less defensive than Altaria, but hits harder with both its STABs. Overall, Flygon doesn't really excel in anything in particular, but works well as a jack of all trades. Who needs a Mega Garchomp when you have a dragonfly-lizard with built-in goggles, right? Important Matchups Note: Trapinch is not a good matchup against bosses, so all the matchups assume you at least have Vibrava, even if it would mean grinding a lot. - Emerald = * Gym #5 - Norman (Petalburg City, Normal-type): The best you can have at this point is Vibrava, if you grind a lot. And it's not enough. If you really need to, you might take out the Spinda and Vigoroth, but that's all. Linoone cannot be allowed to set up. Slaking can potentially destroy you even with non-boosted Facade. * Shelly (Weather Institute): If you grinded your entire team to the level where your starter evolves, you should be able to easily deal with the admin with the majority of your party. * Rival (Route 119): The Fire-types shouldn't cause problems, the Grovyle might. Everything else is pretty much in between - is you have to take them out with Vibrava, you can, but if you have quicker options, perhaps it's better to use them. * Gym #6 - Winona (Fortree City, Flying-type): Flying is weak to two out of three TMs available in Mauville's Game Corner. Vibrava gets neither and is a bit too fragile. You should have better options. And don't even think about using DragonBreath on Altaria. I said that Flygon has stronger Dragon STAB than Altaria. Not Vibrava. * Rival (Lilycove City): The Fire-types won't enjoy your Dig, but be prepared for having to use it twice. The Grass-types will take too long if you try, especially if it's Grovyle who might force you to a healfest if you stay in with Vibrava. The Water-types are bulky, Marshtomp has Take Down... Overall, Vibrava is not the best of possible bets for this fight. Not enough weaknesses, not enough Flygon. * Tabitha (Jagged Pass Hideout): Leave Mightyenas and bats to someone else. You can, however, take on the Numels and Camerupts without major problems. Provided you're high enough in levels, you'll 2HKO either. And because you're faster, you only have to worry about taking one attack - something you should easily do. Levitate + Dig. One of the funniest and most ridiculous things ever. * Maxie (Jagged Pass Hideout): Just like before, Mightyena is a job for someone else, and so should Crobat be. The camels are not troublesome instead, Dig them. * Matt (Lilycove Hideout): Matt is pretty much the biggest failures of all villainous team admins. The best he can do to you is a STAB Bite. His Mightyena has no offensive moves. Of course, you can just send in something that can OHKO anything he throws at you. But if you feel like humiliating a "boss", feel free to cherry tap anything except for Golbat. * Gym #7 - Tate and Liza (Mossdeep City, Psychic-type): If you want to use this mon here, it better be a Flygon. Those two aren't called the "murdertwins" for nothing, as double battles are dangerous. You definitely want to have the other mon pack power similar or greater to Flygon's Crunch, which should 2HKO everything, maybe with an exception of Claydol. It may be a good idea to start with Xatu and then take out the rocks - you don't want anything to start setting up Calm Minds, and that's the gimmick of Xatu and Lunatone. However, there is a problem with Claydol - it has Light Screen (...and Dark is a special type in this generation for reasons that escape me...) and may threaten your other Pokémon with Earthquake, Psychic or AncientPower. Double battles make it hard to determine what will happen, as both moves can target one of your Pokémon and ruin your strategy, but if you're well prepared and play your cards right, Flygon will be a valuable asset. Just remember: Xatu and Lunatone mustn't set up, Claydol is a jerk, Solrock's special moves are sad. And if you haven't grabbed the BlackGlasses from Route 116, go now. * Maxie and Tabitha (Mossdeep Space Center, tag battle with Steven): Because of its movepool, Flygon won't be very efficient for anything except for both Camerupts, but that's also what we have Steven for. After he finishes setting up his dual screens on the first two turns. * Shelly (Seafloor Cavern): There is a TM26 along the way. Grab it and teach it. Then Earthquake everything. * Archie (Seafloor Cavern): Again, Earthquake everything that isn't Crobat, DragonBreath or switch for anything that is Crobat. Done. * Gym #8 - Juan (Sootopolis City, Water-type): You can take out Luvdisc (well duh), Whiscash with Giga Drain, and Crawdaunt. Sealeo and Kingdra (Juan) pack Ice moves and Flygon really doesn't like those. Don't risk going for Dragon moves on Kingdra, even though it being asleep might sound like a good opportunity. You want to face it with something that absorbs special attacks and has several X Accuracies used on it. Flygon does not meet those criteria. * Wally (Victory Road): Not sure what he was given in Verdanturf to take that many levels in badass, but I want double. You should have grabbed the TM for Dragon Claw in Meteor Falls (you need Waterfall), that'll deal nicely with the Altaria. Delcatty is... Delcatty. Roselia will fall to an Earthquake and so will Magneton. Gardevoir? Earthquake, Crunch. Pick one, use twice. Or use one of each, for variety. * Elite Four Sidney (Ever Grande City, Dark-type): If you're running Flamethrower, you'll destroy Cacturne and Shiftry. Everything else can be 2HKOd with Earthquake. * Elite Four Phoebe (Ever Grande City, Ghost-type): Your best bet here is actually Earthquake, not Crunch. It'll allow you to at least 2HKO everything with one exception - stay away from her lvl 51 Dusclops. It has Ice Beam. No need to introduce that move to you. * Elite Four Glacia (Ever Grande City, Ice-type): Even if you run Flamethrower on your Flygon, stay away from Glacia. For reasons that should be obvious. * Elite Four Drake (Ever Grande City, Dragon-type): With one exception, a perfect niche for a Flygon. Dragon Claw will 2HKO everything here. But there's a drawback - so will Salamence's Dragon Claw. If you don't feel like risking a crit, switch. Funny thing about Drake's Kingdra. Remember Juan's Kingdra? Drake's one also has Smokescreen, but doesn't have Ice Beam. Or any Dragon STAB. Surf, Body Slam, Dragon Dance. It can't hurt you before you take it down. * Champion Wallace (Ever Grande City, Water-type): Wailord, Tentacruel and Milotic pack Ice moves, but you should outspeed Tentacruel and squish its mediocre physical defenses with some ground shaking. Don't try with the other two. Giga Drain will 2HKO the Whiscash, unless it sets up an Amnesia. Two uses of Fly will take out the Ludicolo, but the charging turn means it may set up Double Teams. Gyarados has a double weakness to Electric, what are you still doing here? * Steven (Meteor Falls): Flamethrower will 2HKO the Skarmory, giving it a turn to set up spikes if you don't gt a crit, for that reason you might want to consider a different lead for this fight. Prepare for a situation where your mighty Earthquake might not 2HKO the Cradily, but it can't hurt you too much. The same thing with Claydol, who will also annoy you with dual screens. Armaldo has Battle Armor, so you won't crit it, making it pretty much the same, only with a way to inflict confusion (Water Pulse). Aggron has a double weakness to Ground, that's all that needs to be said about it. Metagross is risky for the same reason Drake's Salamence is - your Earthquake will 2HKO, but so will its Meteor Mash. It's only 85% accuracy though, so you might want to go for it. }} Moves Trapinch's level-up movepool is... subpar, to say the least. Your Trapinch will start with Bite, Sand-Attack and Faint Attack. And let's face it, the first two are scheduled for replacing immediately, unless you're feeling lucky and don't mind immunity to evasionhax. Sand Tomb gotten at 25 is definitely not a valid STAB option. At level 33 however, you get Crunch, as per usual a very useful thing to have. If you're feeling cheap, you can postpone the evolution to 41 to get free Dig, a source of many funny situations after the evolution thanks to Levitate. What would you miss by doing it? At level 35, the earliest level you can get a Vibrava, you'll get DragonBreath, your decent secondary STAB for the next part of the game. Of course, you can always retrieve it with a Heart Scale, should you want it. The next move both Vibrava and Flygon get is Screech - not that useful. Sandstorm and Hyper Beam, the last two naturally learned moves in this line's arsenal, are learned by all three species... but why would you give them any spotlight in a normal run? If you want to make a good use of your desert dragon, you need to use a TM or two. Or three. The absolutely obvious choices are without any doubt Earthquake and Dragon Claw, the former learned by all three stages, the latter only by Flygon. Apart from DragonBreath, Dragon Claw is the only Dragon STAB you can get, so take good care of it. Before you get Earthquake you might want to consider Dig as a stepping stone, but remember that you only get one of those in Hoenn and Trapinch learns it naturally. Your other coverage options include Flamethrower and Giga Drain, perhaps for dealing with Ice-types or Water-types with Ice moves, but sadly Flygon's Special Attack is not as high as the physical one. If for some reason you think you don't need four moves, you can always make your Flygon serve as a semi-utility mon with Fly. Recommended moveset: Earthquake, Dragon Claw, and any two between Crunch / Flamethrower / Giga Drain / Fly Other Trapinch's stats Vibrava's stats Flygon's stats * What Nature do I want? You pretty much need your Flygon to be a mixed attacker to fully use its potential, so lowering your Special Attack is bad. However, to be mixed you also need the physical one, so anything lowering Attack is also bad. The least evil would be something lowering Defense, as both your weaknesses are special. Either that or neutral ones would be the best here. * Which Ability do I want? It doesn't really matter, as the distinction is lost on Vibrava and Flygon. Hyper Cutter may help against Intimidate players, but that's it. * At what point in the game should I be evolved? If you're very cheap, you can postpone the first evolution until 41 to get free level-up Dig, but that would mean keeping your Trapinch mostly unusable in major battles. If you don't care about free Dig, or are reasonably afraid that your Trapinch will not survive that long, you can afford to spend the one-time TM28 or are patient enough to wait for Earthquake without a Ground STAB, then evolve into Vibrava around the Norman-Winona part of the game. You might need Flygon for Tate and Liza. * How good is the Trapinch line in a Nuzlocke? Just as stated in the introduction, Flygon is a jack of all trades, but a master of none. The game mechanics give it a significant nerf, but it can still do its job pretty decently. Just like most Dragons, Flygon can use many different types, so if you like versatility, it's a Pokémon for you. And when it comes to the Dragon STAB, it's your best choice, with Altaria being weaker and Bagon being borderline impossible to get. Trapinch's type matchups: * Weaknesses: Ice, Water, Grass * Resistances: Poison, Rock * Immunities: Electric * Neutralities: Normal, Fighting, Flying, Bug, Ghost, Psychic, Dark, Steel, Dragon, Ground, Fire Vibrava's and Flygon's type matchups: * Weaknesses: Dragon, Ice (x4) * Resistances: Poison, Rock, Fire * Immunities: Electric, Ground (Levitate) * Neutralities: Normal, Fighting, Flying, Bug, Ghost, Psychic, Dark, Steel, Water, Grass Category:Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Category:List of Evolutionary Lines with Completed Analyses